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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30037569">Kyoto</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritishEarper/pseuds/BritishEarper'>BritishEarper</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Post-Island Shoni [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Wilds (TV 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Camping, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Nature, One-Shot, Post-Canon, Toni POV, basically just shoni being in love and working through their issues, dave goodkind (mentioned), martha blackburn (mentioned) - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 01:00:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,612</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30037569</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritishEarper/pseuds/BritishEarper</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Island Toni and Shelby spend a weekend camping. Toni tries to build the tent without Shelby's help. It...doesn't go very well.</p><p>Introspection (and fluffy shenanigans) ensues.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Post-Island Shoni [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2209695</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Kyoto</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Toni and Shelby’s car rolled up to the camping site and they walked to their spot of land. It was midday; the mosquitoes were at their most annoying, buzzing loudly around their ears, and the landscape shimmered in the distance. Shelby swatted a couple of mosquitos that had landed on her arm, but she knew she would have some marks on her that night either way.</p><p>“I got this, Shelby. You just sit back and I’ll make the tent.” Toni had taken off her bag and was stretching her arms dramatically like she was some Olympian, rolling her neck back and forth, but Shelby was dubious. She cocked an eyebrow.</p><p>“Are you sure? I have made a lot of shelters before.”</p><p>“Yeah, I know. Let me do this for you. You just sit back.” Toni kissed Shelby's cheek for reassurance. </p><p>“Okay.” Shelby’s voice was high, disbelieving, and sat in the car and began reading her book.</p><p>Toni put on her cap, some sunscreen, bug spray, and began rummaging through the camping bag. She pulled out the instruction manual.</p><p>
  <em>It’s just a camping tent. How hard can it be? This isn’t even a wigwam tent! It’s for kids’ families. </em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Tent, you have met your match.</em>
</p><p>---------------------------</p><p>Two hours later, Toni slumped, defeated. She wiped her brow with her arm, huffing. She kicked one of the poles pathetically. It rolled about a foot away. It was at its hottest time of the day, and she was so thirsty. Her hair clung to her face with sweat. Shelby had already offered some help several times, and each time Toni had refused. Toni sat on the ground and shouted, “Shelby!” Her voice cracked. Her arms ached. Her pride was wounded and lay on the dry, beaten grass along with the manual.</p><p>(Perhaps she was being a little dramatic).</p><p>
  <em>There must be a piece missing.<br/>
Stupid.<br/>
Fuck.</em>
</p><p>Fifteen minutes later, Shelby had constructed the tent. Toni had offered to help, but was clearly suffering from sun exposure, so was pulled off to the side by Shelby and asked to go into the shade and drink some water.</p><p>That night, they lay next to each other on the mat in separate sleeping bags. It was cold, and a little of the breeze came through the zipper. The tent shook and shuddered with every gust of wind. They had a small, weak torch hanging from the top of the tent which jiggled a little with the wind. The wind changed direction and must have caught some other family cooking over a fire, because all of a sudden it smelled of smoke and sausages. Toni’s skin was greasy with sweat, sunscreen and bug spray. In the cool air, she shivered a little.</p><p>Toni remembered her nights camping with Martha, learning about the constellations, huddled together in her backyard, pretending they were off in some wild part of the country where wolves still roamed. They made shadow puppets that fought in epic battles against one another in the light of a battered torch, held in position by a pile of books. </p><p>“Why didn’t you accept my help?” Shelby asked. She rolled over to look at Toni. Her head was all that Toni could see of her, given that the rest of her was tightly packed into the sleeping bag. Said sleeping bag was zipped up almost the whole way.</p><p>“I wanted to do this for you. You deserve to have people do things for you.” Toni’s voice was quiet even in the silence. She tried to roll over a little to look at Shelby, but in the act of turning, she went too far and ended up going the whole way. She was now facing the floor. Shelby and Toni chuckled, their sleeping bags shaking a little with every laugh. </p><p>They grew silent as the night waxed outside. Toni’s face tasted the cheap plastic of the tent ground as her body slackened and her fatigue wore out. The bushes outside rustled quietly.</p><p><em>I wonder if the stars are out tonight, </em>Toni thought. She swallowed at the thought of them. But the thoughts quickly softened at the edges with sleep.<br/>
Far off in the distance, the crickets chirped as Toni and Shelby slept.</p><p> </p><p>---------------------------</p><p> </p><p>The following day, the clouds had gathered overhead, low and grey. Toni whistled a little at them from the warmth of the tent. <em>It’s gonna be a rainy day.</em> She sat with her knees high, touching her chin, arms wrapped around her legs.</p><p>Shelby had been sleeping, but woke at the whistling; the patch of light that had been casted on her from outside was stark. It was like Toni had torn a hole in their little cocoon of warmth. She wiped the sleep-drool from her face, zipped up the sleeping bag (which took a painful amount of time, given the damn zipper got caught on everything), and stretched a little. Her sleepiness faded quickly from her body.</p><p>Toni had been awake for about half an hour before Shelby woke up. Usually she slept longer than her, but being in a new setting had always put her a little on edge. Not to mention, she liked watching the sun rise on lakes. And then there was the people-watching. She had stepped out of the tent, zipped it up, and sat on the ground. It was wet and cold with the morning dew, and soaked into her, but she didn’t mind.</p><p>There had been a family off on the other side of the lake fishing, about a hundred metres away: a man, a woman, and three children. The children were about ten to fifteen years old, small stick figures off in the distance. The man had clearly woken them up far too early; the children rubbed their eyes and talked to each other argumentatively, but the father stood still, shushing them as he cast out his fishing equipment. His...catch? Rod? Hook thing? Toni wasn’t too sure, she had never gone fishing. </p><p>
  <em>Side note: ask Shelby about what all that shit’s called.</em>
</p><p>The man opened his face to the sun.<br/>
Toni began to predict things about him, rather bitterly: the man worked eight hours a day, and came home every weekday at 5:45, kissing his wife on the cheek. They lived in a house with a white picket fence, and only ever argued in that funny way families did in sitcoms. And then, of course, the children were loved and all the family members forgave one another by the end of the day. </p><p>So Toni sat on the outside, watching a family, a life, that she would never be a part of. She picked at an old scab on her knee. The pain was comforting.</p><p>On the other side of the clearing, deep in the tent, Shelby turned in her sleep and muttered loudly before falling back to sleep.  Toni kept watch and absentmindedly scratched her mosquito bites.</p><p>---------------------------</p><p>
  <em>Ten years earlier:</em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Daddy, why are we here? It’s cooold!” Shelby whined. She was cold, and tired, and cold, and it was early in the morning, and did she say that she was cold?! Shelby stomped her foot. They were out on the edge of the lake, perched on the cliff’s edge.</em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>(Well, it was barely a cliff, only about a metre high, Dave Goodkind would insist on in later retellings, laughing at his daughter).</em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Shelby looked down at the dark water, unforgiving in its invisible depths and streams. Her little boot toed the mucky ground, wide ten-year-old eyes seeing complete foreign territories. Small slivers of greyish-silver passed through the water, right by the surface. Fish! </em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Shelby, hun, the best fish come out early in the day. And I wanted to do something together. Now here we are.” Dave Goodkind was nothing if not determined. When Shelby didn’t meet his eyes, he lifted her chin until she did. “Okay? Good.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>Neither of them caught any fish that day. Shelby showered twice the following day but the smell of the lake stayed with her. </em>
</p><p>
  <em></em>
</p><p>
  <em>They didn’t go on any more fishing trips after that.</em>
</p><p>---------------------------</p><p>Toni sat on the edge of the clearing. She was rubbing the material of her shirt between her thumb and forefinger. The shirt was thick, a deep dark blue, and smooth with wear. It had patches on the elbows, something Toni had wanted since she was seven but had never had enough money to buy. </p><p>(When Gretchen’s pay settlement came in the mail, Toni looked at the amount of money they received and immediately went to go buy a shirt with patches on the elbows. She spent minutes afterwards in the changing room of the store rubbing said elbow patches, admiring herself).</p><p>“What are you thinking about?” Shelby appeared from behind her, holding out a water bottle, “I know you get thirsty in the mornings.”</p><p>Toni accepted the bottle gratefully and sipped it, buying time. Shelby sat down next to her, and leaned her head against her. She was taller than Toni, and so had to stoop a little to reach her shoulder. The weight of Shelby’s head was very comforting.</p><p>“Nothing. Just my shirt.” Shelby grinned.</p><p>“Did I tell you how handsome you look in it?”</p><p>“Maybe once or twice.” Toni grinned.</p><p>(The evening after, Toni had worn the shirt as they ate dinner. Shelby hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off her the whole evening).</p><p>They spent the day on the observation deck before driving home again. They slept in a real bed, cuddled a little before going to sleep. Toni listened to Shelby breathe.</p><p>Maybe they couldn’t be that couple with the white picket fence. But maybe they could mean something to one another anyways.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are very appreciated as always :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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